The role of the Inter Press Service in the international mediascape
The case of IPS reporting on the 2005 World Social Forum
©2005
Masterarbeit
80 Seiten
Zusammenfassung
Inhaltsangabe:Abstract:
Academic studies generally paint a very positive picture of the alternative news agency Inter Press Service (IPS). It has frequently been demonstrated that unlike the big commercial agencies IPS provides descriptions of complex processes rather than spot news, informs about positive developments rather than the crisis-reporting that tends to prevail in the mainstream media, and succeeds in reporting from the perspective of developing countries and of people who do not usually get to speak in the news. An analysis of whether a news agency with such laudable intentions actually has the power to contribute to social change appears to be lacking, although IPS marginal status in the mediascape has been pointed out. Against that background, this study investigates the role of IPS as alternative in the mediascape based on IPS coverage of the Fifth World Social Forum (WSF), which took place in Porto Alegre (Brazil) in January 2005.
The field research for this study was conducted during an internship at the IPS Latin America office in Montevideo (Uruguay) and at the World Social Forum, where the author was part of the IPS news team. Considering IPS extensive coverage of the WSF and the fact that civil society constitutes IPS major audience as well as being the key protagonist at the WSF, both the Forum and civil society are regarded important aspects to this analysis. The author presupposes the importance of the WSF for global social movements, and the need both for a diversity of sources that inform the public about the event and the issues discussed there, and for alternatives in the rather homogeneous media sector. The following questions guide the analysis:
a. How does the IPS coverage of the 2005 WSF differ from that by mainstream media?
b. Does IPS contribute to social change?
c. Is IPS an important information source and platform for civil society organisations?
Following a brief introduction, the theoretical concepts central to the analysis are outlined by describing imbalances of the international news environment, explaining the notion of news values, and looking into theories on media effects. An overview of research conducted on the Inter Press Service is furthermore provided. After a description of research methodologies, three chapters focus on one of the guiding questions each, presenting and discussing the research findings on IPS coverage of the World Social Forum, its contribution to change, and […]
Academic studies generally paint a very positive picture of the alternative news agency Inter Press Service (IPS). It has frequently been demonstrated that unlike the big commercial agencies IPS provides descriptions of complex processes rather than spot news, informs about positive developments rather than the crisis-reporting that tends to prevail in the mainstream media, and succeeds in reporting from the perspective of developing countries and of people who do not usually get to speak in the news. An analysis of whether a news agency with such laudable intentions actually has the power to contribute to social change appears to be lacking, although IPS marginal status in the mediascape has been pointed out. Against that background, this study investigates the role of IPS as alternative in the mediascape based on IPS coverage of the Fifth World Social Forum (WSF), which took place in Porto Alegre (Brazil) in January 2005.
The field research for this study was conducted during an internship at the IPS Latin America office in Montevideo (Uruguay) and at the World Social Forum, where the author was part of the IPS news team. Considering IPS extensive coverage of the WSF and the fact that civil society constitutes IPS major audience as well as being the key protagonist at the WSF, both the Forum and civil society are regarded important aspects to this analysis. The author presupposes the importance of the WSF for global social movements, and the need both for a diversity of sources that inform the public about the event and the issues discussed there, and for alternatives in the rather homogeneous media sector. The following questions guide the analysis:
a. How does the IPS coverage of the 2005 WSF differ from that by mainstream media?
b. Does IPS contribute to social change?
c. Is IPS an important information source and platform for civil society organisations?
Following a brief introduction, the theoretical concepts central to the analysis are outlined by describing imbalances of the international news environment, explaining the notion of news values, and looking into theories on media effects. An overview of research conducted on the Inter Press Service is furthermore provided. After a description of research methodologies, three chapters focus on one of the guiding questions each, presenting and discussing the research findings on IPS coverage of the World Social Forum, its contribution to change, and […]
Leseprobe
Inhaltsverzeichnis
ID 9180
Oeffner, Annalena: The role of the Inter Press Service in the international mediascape -
The case of IPS' reporting on the 2005 World Social Forum
Hamburg: Diplomica GmbH, 2005
Zugl.: Universität Bremen, MA-Thesis / Master, 2005
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Printed in Germany
Abstract
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Academic studies frequently paint a very positive picture of the alternative news agency
Inter Press Service (IPS), of its working methods, organisation and approaches to news-
gathering and output, such as giving a voice to the `voiceless' and providing balanced news
and background pieces on development issues. Analysing whether a news agency with such
laudable intentions actually has the power to contribute to social change is the intention of
this study, which is based on the specific case of IPS' reporting on the 2005 World Social
Forum (WSF). Based on comparisons with the coverage by mainstream news agencies, and
the perceptions of IPS staff and members of civil society IPS' major audience and key
protagonists at the WSF , this study argues that the Inter Press Service is in fact influential
and does play a small but significant role as alternative in the international mediascape.
Acronyms and abbreviations
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AFP
Agence France Presse
AMARC
World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters
AP
Associated Press
cf.
compare
CSO
Civil society organisation
ECOSOC United Nations Economic and Social Council
GATT
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
ibid. ibidem
ICWF
Information and Communication World Forum
IPS
Inter Press Service
IPS Latam Inter Press Service Latin America
NGO Non-governmental
organisation
NWICO
New World Information and Communication Order
UN
United Nations
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
U.S.
United States of America
WEF
World Economic Forum
WSF
World Social Forum
WTO
World Trade Organisation
Contents
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Abstract ... II
Acronyms and abbreviations ... III
Contents... IV
Acknowledgements ... V
1. Introduction ... 1
2. Theories on media and their effects... 4
2.1 Underlying theoretical concepts ... 4
2.2 Media effects ... 9
2.3 The Inter Press Service... 13
3. Methodological considerations... 19
3.1 Overview ... 19
3.2 Content analysis... 19
3.3 Interviews with IPS staff ... 20
3.4 Questionnaires ... 21
4. Reporting the World Social Forum ... 22
4.1 Brief introduction to the World Social Forum ... 22
4.2 The World Social Forum and communication ... 23
4.3 The 5
th
WSF as seen by mainstream news agencies ... 25
4.4 The 5
th
WSF as seen by IPS ... 30
4.5 Alternative vs. mainstream media ... 33
4.6 An `ideal' coverage ... 34
4.7 Any effects?... 36
5. IPS' contribution to social change ... 39
5.1 Case study of the Inter Press Service ... 39
5.2 Reaching people ... 39
5.3 Obstacles and limitations... 43
5.4 Agenda-setting... 45
5.5 IPS' contributions to bringing about change ... 47
6. IPS and civil society... 49
6.1 Source of information for civil society... 49
6.2 Platform for civil society ... 50
6.3 IPS' usefulness for CSOs ... 52
7. Research results... 53
7.1 How does the IPS coverage of the 2005 WSF differ from that by mainstream media?. 53
7.2 Does IPS contribute to social change? ... 54
7.3 Is IPS an important information source and platform for CSOs? ... 55
7.4 Which role is IPS playing in the mediascape? ... 56
8. Conclusion... 57
9. Bibliography ... 59
Appendix ... 64
Appendix 1: Interviews ... 64
Appendix 2: Content analysis... 66
Appendix 3: Questionnaire to members of NGOs (English version)... 71
Acknowledgements
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I would like to thank for support, help and friendship:
My colleagues at IPS Latam, in particular Alejandro, Ana, Chechu, Darío, Diana, Raúl,
Rodrigo, Sergio, Steph, Verónica, and Walter. Furthermore the TerraViva team, and
particularly Fitzroy Nation, for his great and patient help, about whose sudden and far too
early death I am very sad.
All those that have contributed by replying to my emails, filling in questionnaires, and
answering questions, in particular Chico Whitaker and Roberto Savio.
My supervisor Dr Kees Biekart, without whose never-ending support this thesis would
have been a lost cause.
And last but not least: Simone, Eduardo, Birte and Andy for translations, suggestions,
corrections, and distractions, and my family for always being there for me.
1.
Introduction
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The Inter Press Service (IPS) can be classified as an alternative international news agency
with a special focus on developing countries
1
. Several studies (cf. Boyd-Barrett and Thussu,
1992; Giffard, 1999; Rauch, 2003) have demonstrated that unlike the big commercial
agencies IPS provides descriptions of complex processes rather than `spot news', informs
about positive developments rather than the `crisis-reporting' that tends to prevail in the
mainstream news, and succeeds in reporting from the perspective of developing countries and
of people who do not usually get to speak in the news. At the same time, however, it has been
claimed that IPS "will continue to have only a relatively marginal status in the world of
information and news providers" (Boyd-Barrett and Rantanen, 1998: 175).
Generally, scholars studying news in and about developing countries paint a very positive
picture of IPS' working methods, organisation and approaches to news-gathering and output.
Yet, an analysis of the actual impact of IPS on change regarding, for example, social
conditions, the mindset of people, or the agenda of media and decision-making bodies
appears to be lacking. Against that background, this study attempts to analyse the role of IPS
as alternative in the mediascape based on its coverage of the Fifth World Social Forum
(WSF), which took place in Porto Alegre (Brazil) between 26 and 31 January, 2005. The
following questions will guide the study:
a.
How does the IPS coverage of the 2005 World Social Forum differ from that by
mainstream media?
b.
Does IPS contribute to social change
2
?
c.
Is IPS an important information source and platform for civil society organisations?
The field research for this study was conducted between October 2004 and February 2005
during an internship at the IPS Latin America office in Montevideo (Uruguay). While
operating all over the world and with its headquarters based in Rome (Italy), IPS is strongest
in Latin America. Because there is a common understanding that IPS still "tends to privilege
Latin American news" (Boyd-Barrett and Thussu, 1992: 31) and since the material for the
study was gathered in that region, the main focus lies on IPS Latam. IPS is a `public-benefit
1
The term developing country is frequently referred to in this analysis despite the ideological bias it entails.
According to Paterson (1996: 1), the term is nevertheless preferable to the "somewhat pejorative Third World"
"or misleading South". The concept of a Third World has been criticised widely for its inherent value
judgements, and is especially now, after the disappearance of a so-called Second World, even semantically
incorrect. Although this author rejects the use of a term that lumps together a variety of different realities and
creates the misleading image of different `worlds', it frequently recurs in this study nevertheless, as it is being
used widely in the literature. IPS uses the geographically incorrect North and South (Rauch, 2003: 101).
2
In this study, social change is understood to comprise political and economic aspects, so as to remain open for
all kinds of research outcome.
1.
Introduction
2
organisation for development cooperation' (IPS, 2004) enjoying NGO general consultative
status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Although its news
service is only one of the working areas of IPS, its other services
3
(cf. Boyd-Barrett and
Thussu, 1992; Giffard, 1998) will be disregarded in this study. IPS has covered all five World
Social Forums extensively, posting stories on the regular wire services beforehand, during and
afterwards, and publishing the newspaper TerraViva. This publication appeared daily and was
distributed for free to participants of the Forum
4
. The author was part of the international
TerraViva team in Porto Alegre.
Both the importance of the World Social Forum for global social movements, and the
need for a diversity of sources informing the public about the event and the issues discussed
there, and for alternatives in the rather homogeneous media sector are presupposed in this
study. Considering IPS' extensive coverage of the WSF and its particular focus on civil
society, it can furthermore be assumed that both the Forum and civil society are important
aspects to this analysis. Indirectly, it attempts to measure the impact of IPS. According to
McQuail (2000: 416), mass communication study is always "based on the assumption that the
media have significant effects"; however, agreement on their nature and extent is lacking.
This author, too, puts forward the assumption that IPS must have some kind of impact, being
a relatively widely-used and well-known international news agency. Media effects can best be
determined when conducting long-term analyses and focusing on the audiences, both of
which could not be realised within the scope of this study. Instead, the subject is approached
by looking at internal opinions of IPS staff, at how one part of their client base (namely non-
governmental organisations
5
) perceive their performance, and at IPS material in comparison
with that of the major international news agencies, namely Associated Press (AP) and Agence
France Presse (AFP).
As far as the author is aware, no similar analysis has yet been conducted in the field of the
significance of alternative news agency reporting on a major civil society gathering. Previous
studies analysing the Inter Press Service are, according to Hamelink (interview, 2004
6
),
limited to a focus on "its historical development, role in the debates [about the New World
Information and Communication Order (NWICO)] and on IPS content". This is often
3
IPS services include, among others, radio, columnist, translation and clippings services as well as training
programmes for journalists, the creation of information exchanges, and media projects.
4
It is also available online at http://www.ipsterraviva.net/TV/WSF2005/ [accessed 05/09/05]
5
Non-governmental organisations make up an important part of civil society. The term describes a great variety
of different associations; here, it is applied to an organisation that is self-governing, private and non-profit, thus
excluding groups that aim at benefiting their own members. It is typically geared at working in the social field
such as aiming to improve the quality of life of disadvantaged people, or struggling for the environment.
6
For details on interviewees, see Appendix 1.1.
1.
Introduction
3
demonstrated by means of comparison with other, usually transnational, news agencies (e.g.
Giffard, 1995
7
and 1999; Rauch, 2003), explaining what they do differently but not which
consequences their differences concerning news reporting and presentation may have.
Wherever an attempt is made towards contextualising the findings, the focus is limited to the
perception of audiences from developed nations about developing countries. Moving beyond
the mere analysis of news output, this author employs a variety of research methods in order
to obtain a more complete picture of the role of IPS. Several scholars (e.g. interview Boyd-
Barrett, 2005) have pointed to the lack of, and consequent need for, empirical study of issues
considered in this analysis. Rauch (2003: 100) suggests the need for further comparisons of
alternative and mainstream content to complement her own research results that found the
coverage of "Southern issues, identities, and interests" by Associated Press to be `one-
dimensional' and `North-centric'.
It needs to be taken into consideration that all research results and consequently drawn
conclusions only refer to a very specific case of one media organisation, its reporting on one
particular issue at one point in time. Generalisations should therefore be treated with caution.
Yet, this study attempts to be a starting point for further research in the field of impact
assessment of alternative media organisations. Furthermore, it may provide IPS as well as
news media with similar working structures and objectives with new insights into the
questions about effects of alternative media, their relevance in reporting social gatherings, and
their usefulness to civil society organisations.
Chapter two outlines the theoretical concepts central to this analysis by describing
imbalances of the international news environment, explaining the notion of news values, and
looking into theories on media effects. It furthermore provides an overview of research
conducted on the Inter Press Service. Following a description of research methodologies in
chapter three, the subsequent three chapters focus on one of the guiding questions each,
presenting and discussing the research findings on IPS' coverage of the World Social Forum,
its contribution to change, and the agency's importance for civil society, respectively. Chapter
seven provides an analysis of the overall research question by drawing on the previous
discussions, and is followed by a brief conclusion.
7
In Savio and Giffard, 1995
2. Theories on media and their effects
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2.1 Underlying theoretical concepts
2.1.1 Approach
This study was influenced by several theories. It contains elements of the two, according
to Thussu (2000: 54) often interrelated, approaches `critical political economy' and `cultural
studies'. The former is concerned with the underlying structures of economic and political
power relations and foregrounds the study of social change (Mosco in Boyd-Barrett, 1995:
186), while the latter concentrates on the semiotic construction of texts and the meaning
readers take from them (Boyd-Barrett and Rantanen, 1998: 11).
IPS is generally considered an alternative news agency, distinct from the dominant
`mainstream' model of the transnational wire services (Musa, 1997). This chapter will put the
question on IPS' role in the mediascape into context by discussing theories on news flows and
news values. Approaches to measuring and understanding media effects will be outlined, and
provide a basis for looking at the specific impact of IPS as described in the literature. A
synopsis of studies on IPS is aimed at clarifying what makes IPS an alternative news medium.
2.1.2 Discourse: alternative vs. mainstream
It has been widely discussed what a term as ambiguous as alternative media may imply.
Miren Gutierrez (2004), IPS Editor-in-Chief, asserts that some of the so-called `alternatives'
are now prominent enough to become `mainstream'. This calls into question whether an
established network like IPS can still be considered alternative. Based on Musa's arguments,
Boyd-Barrett and Rantanen (1998: 173) maintain that the distinction between an alternative
and a mainstream news agency cannot necessarily be made on the basis of its size or scope.
Small national news agencies on the one hand may share the same "premises, concepts and
practices of news gathering as the established, western mainstream agencies", even if they
were set up with ambitious alternative objects in mind. In contrast, a large international
agency like IPS, they claim, "has a very distinctive philosophy of news, and is dedicated
principally to serving the interests of the developing world" (ibid.). According to Milan and
Hintz, media can be `alternative' not only in a structural sense but also, especially, in terms of
content, with `counter-information' as their main objective (in Gutierrez, 2004). Downing
(ibid.) grants limited validity to this `counter-information model', because "it implies there
are two truths, a false one and an accurate one, and that all we need is fresh and accurate facts
for the world to find a new and better axis on which to pivot. Historically, that's naïve,
unfortunately".
2. Theories on media and their effects
5
Rodríguez deems the term `alternative media' obsolete, suggesting a departure from the
notion that the `mediascape' is inhabited by "the powerful (mainstream media) and the
powerless (alternative media)" (in Gutierrez, 2004). This unusual theory is not shared by this
author, who believes in the continuous validity of the distinction, but agrees that the notion
does not necessarily imply the degree of power. An interesting conception worth considering
was introduced by Milan. Shifting from the concept of audiences to that of civil society, the
term `civil society media' is said to include IPS and other media which "call for autonomy
and decentralization, participation, horizontal relations and respect for differences, as opposed
to mainstream media verticality, manipulation and control, therefore representing a clear
alternative to the traditional communication flows" (2004: 5). Although this notion seems
very applicable for the present study, the author continues to regard the Inter Press Service as
`alternative' to the dominant international news providers in the sense that the focus and
characteristics of its news output as well as its organisational structure and news-gathering
methods are different. Whether it can be regarded as viable and useful alternative in
particular for civil society shall be established in the course of this analysis.
2.1.3 Unbalanced news flows
Le Monde Diplomatique director Ramonet calls for a more balanced kind of information
that serves the interests of the citizens (in Mizrahi, 2003: 12), taking the same line as British
journalist Dimbleby, who envisaged a problematic trend in international communication: "As
we're technically capable of becoming more and more informed and better and better
informed, we're at risk of becoming less and less informed by fewer and fewer people" (in
Harrison and Palmer, 1986: 76). The news media are frequently criticised for all sorts of evil
practices and intentions, among them their unbalanced reporting of international issues, which
is often claimed to be shaped by particular political or economic considerations and
standpoints, determined by "what is essentially a single editorial perspective that of a small
number of culturally homogeneous news workers" (Paterson, 1998: 94). A closer look at the
international mediascape appears useful before establishing which role IPS plays in it.
The debate on unbalanced information about so-called developing countries has been
going on for a long time. It culminated in the 1980s with the formulation of a New World
Information and Communication Order, for which UNESCO acted as forum. The NWICO
brought together a range of arguments concerning the one-way flow of information from the
`centre' to the `periphery', including the "near monopolization of international information"
by the news agencies AP, UPI, Reuters, and AFP (Picard, 1991: 356). Supporters of the
NWICO argued that `Western ethnocentrism' created an unequal information flow mainly
2. Theories on media and their effects
6
running from developed to developing countries (ibid.), and demanded the creation of "a
channel through which developing nations can get news about each other, and the
industrialized world, from their own perspective" (Aggarwala, 1978: 357). Critics condemned
the stifling of media freedom (cf. Roach, 1997; Thussu, 2000), justifying unbalanced
reporting with the prevalent occurrence of political instability, economic backwardness,
human and natural disasters (Stevenson, 1984; cf. Picard, 1991; Thussu, 2000). According to
Thomas (1997), the NWICO's impact on the restructuring of international communications
relations has only been marginal. As the NWICO debate has largely disappeared, so has the
interest of social scientists in the subject, on which the study of news agencies was highly
dependent for sustenance (Boyd-Barrett and Rantanen, 1998).
Although the political situation has changed since the formulation of the NWICO, and the
debate itself is no longer an issue, most of the concerns voiced at the time remain unsolved,
and the information divide persists (Boyd-Barrett and Thussu, 1992; Gerbner in Harris, 1997;
Vincent, 1997; Thussu, 2000). Large parts of the world are still without access to a phone
line, let alone the internet, which, according to the 1999 Human Development Report (UNDP,
1999), divides rich from poor, educated from illiterate, men from women, young from old.
Even forty years after Marshall McLuhan (1964) dreamt up his theory of a `global village'
created through the collapse of space, time and borders, "not everyone can be a citizen [of the
global village]. The global, professional elite faces low borders but billions of others find
borders as high as ever" (UNDP, 1999: 31). As this author found in her study on news flows
from Latin America to the British press (Oeffner, 2003), the one-way flow of information
from the `centre' to the `periphery' described by Masmoudi in 1979 (in Thussu, 2000: 44) still
prevails. Central to the present analysis is the question of whether IPS is capable of counter-
balancing that trend.
2.1.4 News values
Theories of news values are crucial in consideration of two distinct dimensions relevant to
this study, namely: In how far is IPS reporting and, for comparisons, that by AFP and AP
in line with traditional news values, and does the World Social Forum constitute a
`newsworthy' event? In their seminal work `The Structure of Foreign News', Galtung and
Ruge (1965) set out a number of factors that commonly ensure prominence for international
news in the media agenda. Among these news values feature the emphasis on negative and
unexpected news, cultural proximity, short-term events and elite nations and people.
Long-term events are thought of going "unrecorded unless [they reach] some kind of
dramatic climax" (ibid.: 22). The concentration on `spot news' and thus the presentation of
2. Theories on media and their effects
7
events out of context (MacBride 1980; Ginneken, 1998; Philo, 2002), that is, the "factors
leading to and causing events" (Mowlana, 1997: 52), constitutes a major point of criticism.
The Glasgow Media Group (2000: 15), discovering that audiences actually desired stories to
be followed up, criticises the "constant flow of images in which one catastrophe followed
another, but without any sense of what had happened before or after each one". Ethnocentrism
causes particular attention being paid to the familiar and culturally similar, while "the
culturally distant will be passed by more easily and not be noticed" (Galtung and Ruge, 1965:
23). `Ordinary people', the authors remark, "are not even given the chance of representing
themselves [...] the same should apply to nations" (ibid.: 24). Gitlin (1980: 273), drawing on
the concept of hegemony
8
developed by Gramsci, argues along the same lines: "Journalists
are trained to be desensitized to the voices and life-worlds of working-class and minority
people". Government and corporate sources, on the other hand, are "recognizable and credible
by their status and prestige" (Herman and Chomsky, 1988: 173).
Cultural studies also resorted
to Gramsci's hegemonic ideology, says Newbold (1995b: 329), asking to which degree
"mass media output reflects and communicates a dominant version of cultures
as though it were the only culture, through which the structure and leading ideas
of a world that has been organized to serve one or a range of competing elites is
made to appear as part of a `natural' order of things, beyond rational questioning,
and thus completely de-legitimizing or even obliterating other possible versions
or, rather, other possible visions of the world as it might be".
Hall et al. (1978: 250) confirm Galtung and Ruge's theory, suggesting that the highest
possible newsworthiness will occur when an event unites all of the following characteristics:
unexpected, dramatic, with negative consequences, human tragedies involving elite persons
and heads of powerful nations, and constituting a recurrent theme in the press. While Boyd-
Barrett and Thussu (1992) and McNair (1998) argue that stories from anywhere have a higher
chance to make it into the news when they are `negative', Galtung and Ruge, and Hall et al.
are joined by many others (e.g. Masmoudi, 1979; Reeves, 1993; Lozano, 1994; Harris, 1997;
Mowlana, 1997; Ginneken, 1998) in their criticism of `bad news' as particular feature of
stories about developing countries. The latter, Aernsbergen et al. (1979: 65) argue, are shown
as zones of
"endless disasters and conflicts [...] As a result, the western consumer is not
made aware that there is also `good news' to report about the countries of the
Third World the results they have achieved and the progress being made."
8
Hegemony: "a ruling class's (or alliance's) domination of subordinate classes and groups through the
elaboration and penetration of ideology (ideas and assumptions) into their common sense and everyday practice;
it is the systematic (but not necessarily or even usually deliberate) engineering of mass consent to the established
order" (Gitlin, 1980: 268).
2. Theories on media and their effects
8
Mohamed Amin, formerly Reuters Nairobi Bureaux Chief, confirms this theory by
arguing that his agency's London editors "live in a different world [and] don't understand
Africa. All they want out of Africa is death, blood, famine, corruption" (in Paterson, 1998:
91). While not denying that wars should be covered, he asks to bear in mind that there is "a
lot of other stuff in Africa" much more important to the continent. The issues with which
Brazil usually hits the headlines are, according to Counterpunch editor Silverstein (in
Barsamian, 1994), corruption scandals, its foreign debt, and the destruction of the Amazon,
while the underlying causes are ignored.
Paterson considers conflict the most prominent agency news value, however only as long
as the agency's favoured clients can in some way relate to it. He cites a journalist from
Worldwide Television News who says his agency could not devote more resources to cover
developing countries due to the lack of interest on the part of its major clients. This, according
to Paterson (1998: 92), is "a common assumption at agencies". Accordingly, McQuail (2000:
231) found an elimination of "news of distant places that is not dramatic or directly relevant
to the receiving nation".
After finding out that IPS resembled the coverage of Associated Press in some significant
dimensions, Ogan and Rush concluded that perhaps no newspaper anywhere in the world
would want "a steady diet of rural agricultural development" and that hence universal news
values may well exist (in Rauch, 2003: 92). This does not, however, justify news structured
by negativism, proximity and elite-centrism, a consequence of which may be the conveyance
of the image of the `First World' as peaceful place with a bit of gossip, while the `Third
World' permanently endures social and natural catastrophes (Topf, 2003: 69). That type of
news is said to driving out unspectacular reports about successful developments in the
Southern hemisphere and creates fear, indifference and apathy (ibid.: 112).
The discussion has demonstrated that there is a pressing need in the international media
environment for balanced news that presents developing countries as more than disaster areas
and considers the causes of existing situations. An understanding of the latter is particularly
essential for changing present realities for the better. As will become clear in the course of
this analysis, IPS stories do not usually comply with the mentioned news values, rendering it
an alternative to the traditional media.
2. Theories on media and their effects
9
2.2 Media effects
2.2.1 Brief history of media effects research
After an overview of the most popular ways of understanding and researching media
effects, this study will look at some potential effects in order to assume what kind of impact
IPS may have.
Fundamentally, all communications research aims to establish what the media can `do',
argue Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955: 124; cf. Deutschmann et al., 1968: 17). Media content,
according to Newbold (1995a: 122), "always serves a function, otherwise it would not exist".
In fact, media messages constitute the only contact many people have with politics
(McCombs and Shaw, 1972: 320); hence it can be assumed that they will also exert some kind
of effect. Although some researchers are doubtful about the use of the term `media effects',
they nevertheless "attempt to understand the relationship between media content and its
audiences" (Newbold, 1995a: 119). According to Ginneken, the tendency prevails to present
the different effect theories as competing with each other; yet, it would be preferable to view
them as complementary, all shedding "some light on this key problem" (1998: 191).
Early media effects research centred on concepts such as the `stimulus-response model'
seeing a media message as `magic bullet' or `hypodermic needle' that would "exert powerful,
relatively uniform effects on everyone who processes it" (Sparks, 2002: 47), and the `limited'
or `minimal' effects theory, which dominated the field for decades (Ginneken, 1998: 191).
For it was concluded that mass communications "ordinarily do not serve as a necessary and
sufficient cause of audience effects" (Klapper in Curran et al., 1982: 103), the latter
perspective suggested that "people are motivated to expose themselves voluntarily to
messages that they already agree with" (Sparks, 2002: 51). Likewise, they tend to avoid
messages they find disagreeable. Klapper had argued that media only `reinforce' existing
opinions rather than changing minds (in Gitlin, 1978: 27).
Nowadays, scholars commonly understand media effects to be less simplistic and tend to
"put additional variables in between the stimulus and the behavioural response" (Meyrowitz,
1985: 13). McLeod and Reeves postulate the theory that "there is no simple answer to the
question of whether the media affect people. It depends on what type of effect you may be
talking about" (in Sparks, 2002: 52). Instead of looking at what the media do to people, the
`uses and gratifications' approach examines "what people do with the media" (Newbold,
1995a: 121), selecting "messages that fulfil personal needs", argues Meyrowitz (1985: 14):
"This approach turns the old stimulus-response model on its head. It suggests
that it is not so much that the media affect people, as it is that people selectively
use, and thereby affect, the media."
2. Theories on media and their effects
10
Noelle-Neumann introduced the theory of a `spiral of silence', based on the idea that
people who think their opinion is the minority view would rather remain silent than risk
isolation or rejection. This causes their views to be heard even less and at the same time
creates the perception that most people agree with the majority viewpoint: "This process can
lead to views that eventually die out and exert little influence even though they are actually
held by substantial numbers of people" (Sparks, 2002: 54).
A popular way of thinking of media effects is agenda-setting theory, which studies media
influences on public awareness, knowledge and understanding of topics, issues, events,
groups and institutions, public beliefs, attitudes, perceptions and opinions (Gunter, 2000:
191). Cohen (1963: 13) famously claimed, "the press may not be successful much of the time
in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to
think about". Further developing this idea postulated by McCombs and Shaw, who succeeded
in providing well-grounded empirical evidence for the occurrence of such agenda-setting, the
concept of `framing' arose. It suggests that media "are telling us what to think by focusing
attention on one particular angle of the story instead of another one" (Sparks, 2002: 157).
Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955: 124) suggest that most media effects research attempts to
study the media's `campaigns' their influence on "opinions and attitudes in the very short
run". Gitlin (1978: 22) disapproves of the dominant paradigm since the Second World War,
mainly associated with the school of Lazarsfeld, which searched for measurable, short-term,
individual, attitudinal and behavioural `effects' in media content, concluding that media are
not very important in the formation of public opinion. It defined `effects' so narrowly and
directly as to make it easy for studies to show the slightest effects, "thereby deflecting
attention form larger social meanings of mass media production" (ibid.: 21). The invalidity of
the method is demonstrated by the fact that "thirty years of methodical research on `effects' of
mass media have produced little theory and few coherent findings" (ibid.: 22).
The approach postulated by cultural effects theorists assumes that media do not have
immediate short-term effects, or at least not merely so, but contribute "to popular
consciousness through the language, symbolic and cultural codes" in which they frame the
world (Newbold, 1995b: 328). Scholars influenced by the political economy approach argued
that "the significance of media went much further than questions of individual effects, uses
and gratifications, and had to do with the relationship of media to other social institutions, to
the economy, to the formation of social ideologies" (Boyd-Barrett, 1995: 189). This position
differed from that of classic Marxists, who believed that the ruling elite tried to formulate
`false consciousness' of the proletariat in order to maintain inequalities between the social
2. Theories on media and their effects
11
classes, thus assuming a very direct media effect (ibid.). Sparks (2002: 54) criticises that most
people tend to think of media effects in terms of change, when, however, one can also look at
them as reinforcing the status quo: "The absence of dramatic change might not indicate the
lack of media impact. Instead, it might indicate that the media exert a force for maintaining
things as they are."
George Gerbner postulated the so-called `cultivation' approach, which assumes that even
though the effects of individual messages may prove minimal and almost subliminal, the
accumulated effects may well turn out to be "very significant indeed" (Ginneken, 1998: 200).
Despite criticism such as only applying to audiences with high media exposure, "the
cultivation approach provides a highly plausible theory of some long-term media effects"
(ibid.: 201), and should therefore be kept in mind for the present study.
2.2.2 Potential effects
Having looked at ways of approaching media effects research, the question of what kind
of influences may arise shall be postulated here. According to McQuail, "wherever the media
exert influence, they also cause change" (2000: 74). Communication has been seen as "a
primary starting point for the whole process of change in society" (Deutschmann et al., 1968:
48). In fact, the diffusion of new ideas and information "stimulate people to want to behave in
new ways", argues Lerner (in ibid.), a leading proponent of modernisation theory. Viewing
development as copying the model of industrialised countries, this concept inhered, according
to McQuail (2000: 221), "a very ethnocentric way of looking at global communication flow",
"based on the belief that mass communication could be a potent instrument in
world economic and social development. The media could effectively spread the
message of modernity and help transfer the institutions and practices of
democratic politics and market economics to economically backward and socially
traditional nations of the world" (ibid.: 84).
The approach has been rejected widely. Albeit Hamelink (2002) paints a little promising
picture of the prevailing development paradigm which entails that "interventionists transfer
such resources as information and knowledge as inputs that will lead to social development as
output", alternative perspectives on potential change have been proposed.
Theories on dependency and cultural imperialism, or the "more limited notion of `media
imperialism'" (McQuail, 2000: 221), have been supported by a myriad of scholars. They are
concerned with global media imbalances which promote dependency relations, undermine
cultural autonomy and national identity, and evoke cultural homogenisation. While the
present domination of news systems causes "some Southern journalists [to] see their own
news through foreign eyes" (Reyes Matta in Rauch, 2003: 91), "the ability of Southern nation
